Month: January 2010

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Other

The First Episode of the TV Book Club

I have just watched the first episode of the TV Book Club on More 4 and was so disappointed with it that I felt I had to put my frustrations on record, in the vain hope that those in control of the show will change things.

The first book to be featured on the show was The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I enjoyed reading it, but it did have a few flaws, so I was looking forward to seeing what others thought of it.

The show opened in a very cheesy way, with all the presenters looking uncomfortable – a forgivable problem, as I appreciate that this is an important new venture for them all. The programme then introduced their special guest for the night, radio DJ Chris Evans, and spent 10 minutes discussing his book, carefully and thoroughly. This was fine, but I tuned in to hear about Sarah Waters – I have no interest in celebrity autobiographies and their excessive promotion, so I waited patiently for The Little Stranger to appear.

We were then treated to a weird piece about how much success Cecelia Ahern had achieved since her book was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, with amusing clips which did their best to avoid any shots of Richard and Judy’s names!  

The programme then took a strange, mildly interesting look at a few words not commonly used in the English language, which was OK, but 20 minutes in I still hadn’t heard anything about The Little Stranger.

Finally, Sarah Waters appeared and gave a fantastic description of her book – easily the best part of the show, it was great to hear her talk.

Then the discussion started, but it was terrible – it felt rushed, unorganised and critical.  It seemed to appear that all the panel members disliked the book, but without enough time it was impossible to decide whether they didn’t enjoy any of it, or just certain sections. The rushed discussion failed to address any aspect of the book properly and just as it seemed to be getting going it was all over. It was supposed to be a book club, so why did they only discuss the book for 4 minutes?

Richard and Judy managed to create an intelligent discussion of a book in a ten minute slot, so it is really disappointing that this programme failed to take advantage of it’s 30 minute length. They could have had a fantastic, thorough talk, but instead they wasted their time with pointless fillers.

Did you watch the TV Book Club?

Did you find it as frustrating as I did?

Will you be watching the rest of the series?

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Blogging Other

10,000 Comments!

Congratulations to Beth who left my 10,000th comment! A £20 Amazon voucher will be in your inbox soon.

A few people were wondering how quickly I built up the comments on my blog, so I decided to produce this graph to show you how the number of comments I’ve received each month has grown:

The big dip in October 2009 is due to my holiday and things have quietened down over Christmas, but hopefully they’ll pick up again in the New Year. As you can see I was blogging for several months before I started to receive more than a handful of comments.

While I was studying my comment data I decided to highlight my wonderful, regular commenters. I was amazed at just how many comments some of you have left.

Top 10 Commenters on Farm Lane Books Sep 2008 – Jan 2010

 

  1. Sandy 348
  2. Beth 263
  3. Claire 251
  4. Simon 181
  5. Violet 156
  6. Steph 121
  7. Rebecca 101
  8. Diane 85
  9. Jenners 82
  10. Kimbofo 81

Thank you so much to everyone in the above list and anyone who has ever left a comment here. I appreciate every single comment I receive.  

Do you encourage comments on your blog, or are they just an added bonus?

Do you enjoy reading comments on other people’s blogs, or just your own?

Categories
1990s Books in Translation Chunkster

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami

Translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin

I have enjoyed many Murakami books in the past, but for some reason I’d avoiding reading this, often described as his most famous book. I felt as though I was saving it as a special treat and built up my expectations accordingly. Unfortunately it was nothing like I expected it to be, and in the end I was quite disappointed by it.

The first half of the book was fantastic. I think the word ‘mesmorised’ is the only way I can describe it. I was glued to every word, unable to read quickly, savouring the simple story of a man struggling to find satisfaction in his life. The central character, Toru, has quit his job and so is spending much of his time alone. He starts to receive strange phone calls, his cat disappears and he is then visited by a series of fabulous characters. The stories told by each of these visitors were fantastic. I was particularly gripped by the story of the soldier and his journey into enemy territory. The story of his capture and torture was a bit gruesome in places, but it was so powerful that I think I’ll always remember it.

In the second half of the book it started to go weird, but (and this might sound strange) it wasn’t weird enough for me. It was teetering on the fine line between reality and the bizarre, but didn’t cross it. I felt that the surreal twist in the story was unnecessary and that the book would have benefited from being grounded in reality. The perfectly constructed stories of the first half were ruined by the ambiguous and unrealistic occurrences at the end. The characters introduced later in the book (Cinnamon, Nutmeg etc) failed to engage me and I don’t think I really understood their presence in the novel.

The ending was even more disappointing. The book just seemed to peter out, leaving almost all the ends untied. I was left feeling frustrated and confused, with more questions than answers. The last third of the book really dragged as there was no forward momentum and I felt as though I was wading through random, meaningless paragraphs.

Overall I’m afraid that there were too many negatives for me to be able to recommend this book. If you’re after a fantastic Murakami then I suggest you try Kafka on the Shore.

stars3h

Did you enjoy The Wind-up Bird Chronicle?

What did you think of the ending?

Have you thought about sitting in the bottom of a well?!

Why did Murakami write this book? Can you see a point to it?

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Blogging Other

10,000th Comment Celebration!

I am really happy to see that I have nearly 10,000 comments on my blog. Reading all your comments is my favourite part of blogging and I wouldn’t carry on without them.

Thank you to everyone who has left a comment on my blog – you make it the special place it is!

fireworks

To celebrate, the people at Discount Coder.com have offered to give a £20 Amazon Voucher to my 10, 000th commenter. 

There are less than 100 comments left to reach the target, so hopefully there will be a lucky winner at some point in the next few days.

GOOD LUCK!

Categories
2010 Booker Prize Books in Translation

The Boat to Redemption – Su Tong

 Winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize 2009

Translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt

The Boat to Redemption focuses on the boat people of a Chinese River. The central character is Dongliang, who was once the revered grandson of a revolutionary martyr, but when his ancestry is questioned his life quickly deteriorates.

The main theme of the book is the relationship between Dongliang and his father. It is essentially a coming of age story showing how hard it is to adjust to adulthood, but although it is a very Chinese novel, similar in style to Brothers, the themes of love, heartache and fear are universal.

The book was interesting at the beginning, but the pace was quite slow. It picked up at is progressed and by the half way stage I was captivated – the characters were fascinating and so different from those in Western novels as their superstitions and respect for authority add a different dimension to their problems.

I don’t have a big knowledge of Chinese culture and so I felt that some things went over my head – there were several points where there appeared to be a wise saying, but it didn’t translate well into English. This wasn’t because of a translation problem (I think Howard Goldblatt did a great job) but because there wasn’t an equivalent phrase in English.

‘If your mother finds you, then you’ll be a drowned ghost too, with moss growing all over your body.’

As with many other Chinese novels there was an obsession with genitalia in this book. I found that some of the scenes put me off my food for a few hours, but there was no explicit sex or extreme violence, so most people will cringe rather than be offended.

I’m sure that this book would be even more impressive if read in the Chinese, but even with a limited knowledge of the culture there is still a lot to enjoy.

Recommended to fans of Chinese literature.

stars41

Categories
2000 - 2007 YA

Twilight – Stephenie Meyer (Book and Film)

I had been wanting to read Twilight for a long time, as I hate not knowing what everyone else is talking about. I suspected that I wouldn’t enjoy it, but tried to approach it with a fairly open mind.

Unfortunately I quickly realised that it wasn’t for me – the writing style grated, the characters lacked depth and there was no atmosphere. After trudging through 50 pages of this drivel I gave up and decided to watch the film.

I immediately liked watching it a lot more – the characters, who had been so dull on paper came to life! The film was beautifully shot and was packed with colour, action and even emotion at times. After 20 minutes I paused the film and picked the book up again, wondering if I’d been wrong about it, but after struggling through another ten pages I realised that my initial reaction was still holding up. The dialogue was so cheesy and as the book consists of almost nothing but talking it was impossible to avoid!

I finished the rest of the film and found that I really enjoyed it. I’m not normally a fan of vampire films, but I found that Twilight was different to many of the others due to the lack of excessive violence. The plot concentrated more on the love story than the vampires chasing each other round and killing one another. I even found the love story almost believable on screen – there were several touching scenes.

Once I had  finished watching the film I skim read the rest of the book, reading only the important scenes. I noticed a few differences between the two, but generally the film seemed to follow the book very closely. I’m afraid that the writing quality remained quite low for the rest of the book and I was never tempted to finish it properly. I’m sure that I would have loved Twilight when I was 14, but as an adult I was thoroughly bored with it.

I won’t be reading any more of the books, but will ensure I watch the DVDs as they are released.

Book: stars1 (DNF)

DVD:  stars41

Did you enjoy Twilight?

Did you prefer the book or the film?